Veterans Will Not Let Up on Scott Walker's Aides Stealing from Veterans

Ernest A. Canning is a Vietnam veteran and leading legal critic
of Scott Walker's likely criminal involvement in WalkerGate,
and Walker's voter obstruction project. Canning writes at
The Brad Blog.

Scott Walker set up his friends, Multiple Kelly Rindfleisch, Tim Russell and Kevin Kavanaugh as paid employees of non-profits intended to help veterans and their friends.

Scott Walker is toast.

If his aides' stealing from veterans is not enough to catch the Wisconsin electorate’s eyes as the mainstream press tries to hide the story, alternative media like this stays busy and brings these low lives’ actions to the fore. Ernest A. Canning ( Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central) won't let up, and Walker can spin all he wants.

Operation Freedom, advertised by then Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, "thanks our Armed Forces members and veterans for their service." (July 5, 2009).

But in October of 2009, Scott Walker inexplicably ordered the transfer of $19,000 in Operation Freedom funds and financial control over to his then Deputy Chief of Staff, Tim Russell who had no experience running a non-profit. Mr. Russell then allegedly stole thousands of dollars from Operation Freedom and used the money to pay for Caribbean and Hawaiian vacations and a political trip to Atlanta to meet with Herman Cain's presidential campaign. Walker Investigations.

Joe 'Ragman' Tarnovsky, United States Army (28 January 1968 to 22 Oct 1970) e-mails us: "The following award is being presented to Scott Walker, Kevin Kavanaugh and Tim Russell for actions BELOW and INFERIOR AGAINST VETERANS: The Distinguished RAT BASTARD Tail for Thievery and Lack of Accountability."

Let's looks at Kevin Kavanaugh.

Mr. Kavanaugh, Scott Walker's close friend and political appointee to a Veterans Commission, faces several serious felony and misdemeanor charges for embezzling at least $42,232 from the Military Order of the Purple Heart between 2006 and 2009. Mr. Kavanaugh allegedly took the money from donations that included more than $28,000 given by former state Rep. Mark Gundrum, who had donated his legislative salary to the group while serving on active military duty in Iraq. Mr. Kavanaugh is also alleged to have stolen money earmarked for children of Wisconsin military service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The criminal complaint said he and his wife had credit card debt exceeding $40,000. Control of Operation Freedom funds was transferred from the Military Order of the Purple Heart to the Cudwoth Legion Post in February 2009, a chapter of American Legion, a nationally recognized veterans organization. Walker Investigations

Then there's Multiple Kelly Rindfleisch.

According to the criminal complaint against Rindfleisch [check it out, it's utterly damning of Rindfleisch], a GOP operative brought in to secretly and illegally work on Walker's 2010 campaign out the Milwaukee County Executive's office, she worked on Operation Freedom as well (p. 3,4).

Rinfleisch is up to her eyes in illegal activity caught on her communications, and the best she can realistically hope for is a pardon from Scott Walker, which he refuses to rule out.

Reads the complaint, quoting Rindfleisch who communicated on the secret e-mail system run out of Walker's executive office after Rindfleisch assures her partners she is on a secret system, later retrieved by prosecutors. Rindfleisch says:

(Rindfleisch is chatting with another friend)
Friend: Who do you work with?
Rindfelsich: tim russell
Friend: What are your policy areas
Rindfleisch: fran, I don't have specific policy areas, I do projects tim gives me
Friend: what's your title?
Rindfleisch: policy advisor
Friend: that's fancy
Rindfleisch: but I don't need fancy
Friend: I wish you didn't work for government...now I can't talk to you about campaign stuff online Rindfleisch: I'm on my laptop, separate system
Friend: oh...not shit, so it's cool?
Rindfleisch: yah
Friend: are you going to be helping out the campaign too?
Rindfleisch: really, half of what I'm doing is policy for the campaign, its policy stuff but its for use over there
Rindfleisch: I'm also doing Operation Freedom

Congratulations are due Rindflsisch, however, because as an Operation Freedom, Scott Walker appointee, she didn't embezzle from veterans—that's an achievement in the land of Scott Walker who condones unethical and illegal behavior.

Rindflsisch merely is charged with four felonies for misconduct in public office.

So Rindfleisch just admitted in her court filing that these statements are true, and that she only took the Milwaukee County job as a campaign position for the election season. Put this together with then-County Exec Walker being the sole person signing off on Rindfleisch's hiring and promotion, and you see that Scott Walker brought Kelly Rindfleisch on as a campaign worker, but paid her out of the County Executive's Office, in clear violation of state law. And lastly, let's not forget that Rindfleisch admits in the chats that she does projects for Tim Russell and has the separate laptop and computer system. And what did Scott Walker do on the night the Darlene Wink resignation happened, and the Walkergate web was starting to be revealed? He sent Tim Russell (who Rindfleisch was doing projects for on the separate laptop and wireless system, remember) the following message: 'We cannot afford another story like this one. No one can give them any reason to fo another story. That means no latops, no websites no time away during the work day, etc." (Scott Walker) via Jake

Writer Ernest A. Canning ( Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central) notes:

To establish proper venue in Milwaukee County, prosecutors allege in the Rindfleisch complaint that, per her personnel file, "Rindfleisch claimed her residence as 133 South 93rd Street, West Allis, Wisconsin," which just happened to be the residence of "James Villa, former Chief of Staff for the Milwaukee County Executive Office and long-time personal friend of Scott Walker. He served as informal advisor to the Friends of Scott Walker in 2010." According to WPR, in his change of venue motion, Gimbel alleges that the case against Rindfleisch should not be heard in Milwaukee County Circuit Court because she did not actually reside in Milwaukee County at the time she was employed in the Milwaukee County Executive Office. However, the official complaint alleges that Villa testified Rindfleisch began living in his home several days per week "to fulfill her residency requirement as a Milwaukee County employee." According to the prosecutors' complaint, that allegation was confirmed by "chats" pulled from Rindfleisch's laptop. County employment as cover for campaign activity WPR reports [emphasis added]:

"The governor has distanced himself from Rindfleisch, although a copy of her personnel file obtained by Wisconsin Public Radio shows Walker was the only person to sign off on her hiring. He was also the only person to approve her promotion two months later."

In last month's article on the continuing "John Doe" investigation, we noted that Rindfleisch's promotion to Walker's Deputy Chief of Staff placed her less than 25 feet from the door of Walker's office as County Executive. That was at the same time, according to the Rindfleisch complaint, that she was routinely using a secret email system set up by Walker's former Deputy Chief of Staff Tim Russell to carry out extensive campaign activities on behalf of Walker's campaign arm which calls itself Friends of Scott Walker. But the complaint also alleges that Rindfleisch began her illegal participation in campaign activities during office hours from the moment she began working in the Milwaukee County Executive Office. The change of venue motion, placed in the context of the allegations contained in the Rindfleish complaint, suggests that extraordinary efforts were made to evade the residency requirement in order to bring a political operative (Rindfleish --- who was also previously tied to the Assembly Republican Caucus Scandal that put several high-ranking state officials in jail several years earlier), into the Milwaukee County Executive Office in order to misuse that position for the political advantage of Walker in his 2010 gubernatorial campaign. The fact that Walker signed off on both her initial hire and her later promotion strongly suggests that Walker was in on the scheme from day-one. That inference is reinforced by the "smoking gun" 5/14/10 emails between Walker and Russell and between Rindfleisch and Russell. That series of emails reveals that Rindfleisch pulled the plug on the secret email system just ten minutes after Walker told Russell, in the wake of public exposure of former Milwaukee County employee Darlene Wink's illegal political missives sent during office hours: "We cannot afford another story like this one…That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the day, etc." All-in-all, these points seem to back up our contention from last week, in the wake of the establishment of his new Legal Defense Fund, that Scott Walker may be now be a target of prosecutors in the long-running "John Doe" investigation which has already led to the indictments of four of his former top deputies.

Further notes Caning:

The fact that Walker signed off on both her initial hire and her later promotion strongly suggests that Walker was in on the scheme from day-one. That inference is reinforced by the "smoking gun" 5/14/10 emails between Walker and Russell and between Rindfleisch and Russell. That series of emails reveals that Rindfleisch pulled the plug on the secret email system just ten minutes after Walker told Russell, in the wake of public exposure of former Milwaukee County employee Darlene Wink's illegal political missives sent during office hours: "We cannot afford another story like this one…That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the day, etc."

Scott Walker is toast. If his aides stealing from veterans is not enough to catch the Wisconsin electorate's eyes as the mainstream press tries to hide the story, alternative media like this stays busy and keeps these low lives' actions to the fore.